Writer of Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry and Master Photographer
Most of us learned in school about the Boston Tea Party and have heard the story over years in popular culture. Normally, it is told with some variations, as taxes or the price of tea went up, and local patriots spontaneoulsy dumped the product into the harbor. That’s not quite right. Actually, the problem was…
There were about 150,000 Irishmen — many of whom were not American citizens at the time — who served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Many were patriotic towards their new home, while some hoped that honorable service might help reduce some of the blatant discrimination against the Irish in the country. As…
Israel Putnam isn’t a name that comes up on many lists of important Revolutionary War generals, but he was an interesting character who had a distinguished military career before and after the conflict. Putnam may be best known — but least credited — for his order at Bunker Hill: “Don’t fire until you see the…
While Andrew Jackson’s legacy as president will forever be tarnished for his role in the Trail of Tears, he was an interesting historical figure and key figure in the War of 1812. My favorite story about Jackson is that he survived the first known attempt to assassinate a president of the United States. On the…
There’s more material about General Robert E. Lee than a person could read in a lifetime. However, there was a Confederate captain named Robert J. “Bob” Lee who kept his personal war going for nearly half a decade after the Civil War ended who is barely known outside Texas. When the war broke out, Lee…
For most of us, President’s Day (it’s Monday, by the way) has become just a day when we don’t get mail and the stock market is closed. This is pretty sad considering we have holidays to honor candy and ghosts. Maybe a few interesting facts about some of our leaders would help…
On a cold morning in 1871 in Granbury, Texas, a saloon owner went to check on one of his employees who had been extremely sick. The man went by the name John St. Helen. St. Helen had shown up in town four years earlier and kept a low profile. He’d left the town of Glen…
Sometimes we might find ourselves following politics too closely and wonder how things got so bad. They didn’t just get bad — they always have been. I ran across some sources lately for some odd and inflammatory mudslinging from past American politicians. And yes, of course, the Long family of Louisiana is involved: •In the…
History has produced plenty of incompetent generals and plenty of high-ranking traitors, but few combined the two traits as well as General James Wilkinson. When the War of 1812 started, Wilkinson was the senior ranking military officer in the United States. He was also a thief and a con man, who monkeyed around with supply…
The headline of this blog might remind readers of the movie The Free State of Jones or maybe cause a Google search to see if Lynyrd Skynyrd has reissued a greatest hits album. It is much stranger than that. Van Zandt County tried to secede at least two times, first from the Confederacy and later…